Cannes 2024

The winners of the Docs-in-Progress Awards were unveiled during a ceremony at the end of this year's Doc Day (May 21). Top cash prizes went to Only on Earth by Robin Petré (IEFTA Doc-in-Progress Award, €10,000), to Aliyá, Yeridá by Rafael Guendelman (Al Jazeera Documentary Award, Co-pro deal with minimum €15,000 contribution), and to Chilean The Stationary Traveller (Rise and Shine Award, €3,000).

Four new projects developed at the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator were pitched May 20 at Cannes Docs. CIRCLE is described as “a unique training initiative designed for women and non-binary writers, directors, and producers from all-over the world, offering a safe space for consultation, collaboration, sharing ideas and improving skills.” Opening the sessions producer and Programme Director Biljana Tutorov described the workshop as “a work of solidarity,” and a “circle of trust.”

The Dutch filmmaker and Chair of the 10-member fund that aims to address inequities in representation across current international funding systems, talks to BDE ahead of her ‘Soapbox’ key-note at Cannes Docs May 21. After a 3-year pilot, Fund members, which include the likes of the Netherlands Film Fund, Screen Ireland, VAF and Telefilm Canada, are set to sign a new 2-year agreement through to 2026.

David Teboul talks to BDE about his new doc that takes on one of the titans of French cinema. “The idea of the film started with this incredible material,” the director says. “I had the trust of [Truffaut’s daughters] Eva and Laura Truffaut so I had access to personal unpublished archives, interviews, letters and photos…I was able to make an intimate portrait…from the point of view of Truffaut. This has never been done before.”

In her 40-minute doc, Elena López Riera talks to mature women from Southern Spain, some as old as 103, about their experience of love (or otherwise), marriage and sex. All the time López Riera acknowledges that she will never be one of the numerous brides we see on screen culled from archive, nor will she be part of the “inheritance” process of child-rearing. The film is dedicated to her mother, with whom she has hitherto never been able to talk intimately, and whose image as a young bride herself we see continuously on screen.

Chile will be participating for the fourth time at Cannes Docs when four projects at advanced stage and covering themes such as the migration crisis, diversity and climate change, will be presented. Meanwhile, a wider delegation of Chilean doc producers will attend the Marché du Film to promote and present their talent and content to the global documentary community.

A lovingly reverential portrait of the most famous puppeteer of all time, Jim Henson, creator of Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and other fantastical worlds, Howard's film offers eye-opening insights into Henson’s background, delivers anecdotes which will be new to many, and all the time propels this reviewer on a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

At Marché du Film, BDE spoke to May Odeh of the Palestinian Film Institute (PFI). The body is visiting the Croisette on the occasion of the May 19 Palestine Showcase, where the focus is placed on four new non-fiction projects. “It aims to spotlight the talent, creativity, and diversity within the Palestinian filmmaking community, providing a platform for Palestinian filmmakers to share their stories and perspectives with an international audience,” underlines Odeh of the Cannes event.

In his latest doc, world-premiering at Cannes 2024, Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck tells the story of Ernest Cole, the brilliant South African photographer who highlighted the horrors of apartheid before his untimely passing at the age of just 49. “Some of those photos that you find in [Cole’s book] House Of Bondage followed me over years of political activism,” Peck explains his strong identification with the late South African’s work.

In 2024 Switzerland is the Country of Honour at the Cannes Marché, and celebrated at a series of events organised with Swiss Films in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Office of Culture and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR. At Cannes Docs May 19 Swiss Films will further present, together with Visions du Réel, four Docs-in-Progress to the Cannes professional audience. BDE spoke to the producers of the new works.